Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

Author(s): Siddhasena Divakar, Vinayvijay, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal

Page 321

210
Naya-karņikā
karmas and 7) Mokṣa or complete deliverance of the soul from its Karmas.
If the merit (punya) and demerit (pāpa), the results produced by the varying good combinations in the case of punya, and by the varying bad combinations in the case of pāpa karmas of Soul, be considered as separate principles, instead of being included, as they are here, under Āsrava, there will be 9. principles..
The knowledge of these principles is acquired by means of pramāṇas (proofs of knowledge) and nayas (the methods of comprehending things from different standpoins). Thus nayas are essential to the acquisition of true knowledge
In the parable of the blind men we saw that the knowledge of each of them was only partially true, and that their different and seemingly conflicting views only needed a comprehensive and all-embracing statement to be reconciled to one another. Precisely the same is the case with philosophy and religion; and the comprehensive survey of the different aspects of things presented by Jaina philosophy enables us, at once, to reconcile the seemingly hostile and irreconcilable views of all the non-Jaina doctrines of the ekāntavāda (one-sided) type.
Comprehensiveness of thought, then, is the real basis of philosophy. But since ordinary speech is ill suited to the requirements of such a system of Thought, the Acāryas had to resort to a unique system of predication to carry on their metaphysical discussions. This system, known as the Saptabhangi, is the basis of the synthetical comprehensiveness of knowledge which is characteristic of Jainism. The Nayas give us what may be termed the analytical knowledge of